Overview

The notebook market of today barely resembles the notebook market of 5 years ago. People are spending less money on their computers than ever before, and we find even sub $1000 options are adequate for casual 1080p gaming. However the high-end, boutique gaming notebook hasn’t been forgotten. Companies like Maingear still forge on to try to provide a no compromise portable gaming experience. Today, we look at the Maingear Pulse 17 gaming laptop.

The most striking feature of the Pulse 17 is the namesake 17-in display. While we are used to seeing gaming laptops fall in the 15-in or higher range, there is something to be said about opening up the Pulse and being greeted by a massive display with 1080p resolution. The choice of a 17-in display here also enables one of the most impressive parts of this notebook, the thickness.

When most people think about gaming laptops, their minds go to the gigantic bricks of the past, The Pulse 17 manages to provide gaming power in a similar thickness to the average ultrabook at 0.86”. In fact, the form factor is similar to what I’d imagine a 17” MacBook Pro Retina as, if Apple decided to use a display that large.

Even though the screen size creates a large footprint for the Pulse 17, both the thickness, and the 6lb weight make this the first truly portable gaming laptop I have used.

Comparing the physical form of the Pulse 17 to a notebook like the ASUS G750JX, which we reviewed late last year, is almost comical. The G750 weighs in at 10lbs and just under 2” thick while toting similar hardware and performance to the Pulse 17.

Top: Maingear Pulse 17, Bottom: ASUS G750JX

Beyond physical attributes, the Pulse 17 has a lot to offer from a hardware standpoint. The Intel Core i7-4700HQ processor and NVIDIA GTX 765M GPU (as tested, it now ships with a 870M) mean that you’ll have all that you need to play any modern game on the integrated 1080p display.

Storage is provided by a 1TB Hard Drive, as well as 2x128GB mSATA SSDs in SuperRAID 0 to provide maximum throughput.

Not content to let Digital Storm have all the fun with SteamOS, MAINGEAR has launched a small form factor SPARK Steambox PC! Clad in the traditional red and black colors of Maingear, the Spark is a stylish gaming system powered by an AMD APU that is about the size of an Intel NUC. Maingear is offering the system with Valve's Linux-based SteamOS as well as Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.

The Steambox PC measures 4.5" x 4.23" x 2.34" and weighs 0.98 pounds. The system has a vivid red and black design with large mesh vents on the sides and rear panel. IO includes two USB 3.0 ports and two audio jacks on the front as well as one HDMI, one Mini DisplayPort, one Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports on the rear IO panel. The design is striking and likely to appeal to gamers though it may clash with your other A/V equipment in the entertainment center (which really comes down to personal tastes).

Despite the small size, Maingear has managed to pack a respectable amount of PC hardware into the Spark. The SFF Steambox is powered by an AMD A8-5557M APU (four threads) clocked at 2.1GHz base and 3.1GHz turbo along with an AMD Radeon R9 M275X graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, and up to 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory (two SO-DIMMs). Storage includes a single SATA III 6Gbps port (with room in the case for a single 2.5" drive) and one mSATA slot that supports SSDs up to 256GB. The Spark does support Gigabit Ethernet, but it also comes with a pre-installed Mini-PCIe card that provides 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz bands) and Bluetooth 4.0. Users will be able to customize the RAM and storage options, but the other specifications are not user-configurable.

The Maingear Spark will be available for purchase in late Q1 2014 for an as-yet-undisclosed price. For what it's worth, Maingear has stated that the tiny Spark gaming PC will an "affordable PC solution."

Personally, depending on price, I am interested in this steam machine as I rather like the aesthetics and the internal hardware should be sufficient for basic gameplay on the hardware itself and game streaming from my main desktop when that feature becomes available.

What do you think about Maingear's miniscule APU-powered Steam Machine?

Maingear is a company that seemingly ascribes to the “go big or go home” motto, and nowhere is that sentiment made clearer than its latest gaming notebook: the Nomad 17.

Perhaps, the term “notebook” is a bit of an understatement here. The Nomad 17 is a 16.85” x 11.34” x 2.17” gaming notebook that packs the latest and greatest mobile technology into a package that is sure to give your back a workout should you attempt to use this beast as your daily driver (as someone that has attempted such a feat, I can attest to that heh). The Nomad 17 starts at $1,599 and goes up from there, but you do get a lot of hardware for the money.

An Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3840QM is the highest end CPU you can add, and it is also loaded out with either a NVIDIA GTX 675M or the GTX 680M graphics card and Optimus graphics switching technology. In addition, the Nomad can be configured with either two 512GB SSDs or two 750GB mechanical hard drives in a RAID O or RAID 1 array. The gaming laptop also does not skimp on RAM, allowing up to 32GB of DDR3 running at 1600MHz.

On the outside, you are getting a backlit keyboard, multitouch touchpad, and large 17” LED backlit display with matte anti-glare coating and a resolution of 1920x1080. On the audio front, it supports the THX TruStudio Pro audio codec and sports two speakers and a subwoofer by DynAudio. Connectivity options include a SD card reader, 6x Blu-ray burner/8x DVD writer optical drive, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. External IO ports include one HDMI, one DVI, three USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, one Firewire, one optical audio out (S/PDIF), one Gigabit Ethernet/RJ45 port, and one RJ-11 port (of all things). Also, it features analog audio outputs, eSATA, and a VGA output.

The Nomad 17 with come pre-loaded with the 64-bit versions of either the Windows 7 Home, Premium, or Ultimate operating system.

But, the big reveal for gamers wanting to show off their gaming hardware is this: the Nomad 17 will be available in one of six custom, hand painted designs using glossy automotive paint.

The Nomad 17 is available now, and starts at $1,599. When decked out with the Core i7-3840QM, 4GB GTX 680M, 32GB system RAM, and two 512GB Crucial M4 SSDs (in RAID 0) mentioned above, the system total came out to $3,802. At that price, serious gamers only need apply, but is still an awesome piece of gaming technology nonetheless. Maingear has definitely packed the 17” laptop to the max with hardware.

Custom PC manufacturer Maingear took the wraps off of its latest all in one computer today, and it features some impressive specifications for an AiO system. As the release of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system approaches, Maingear is gearing up support by introducing a system with desktop specifications and a large 24” touchscreen display with the new Alpha 24 Super Stock.

On the outside, the matte black Alpha 24 all in one has a prominent 24” glossy touchscreen display running at 1920x1080 resolution. Above the screen is a webcam. There are ports along the left side of the bezel and ventilation slits for the HSF on the back.

What makes the Alpha 24 interesting is all the hardware that the company has managed to pack inside the monitor-sized form factor. Internally, you will find a mini-ITX motherboard with Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge processor, and up to 16GB of DDR3 laptop RAM, 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD, 3TB mechanical hard drive, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card (GTX 650 and GTX 670 GPUs are also options). The Alpha 24 also features 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, with an optional Bigfoot Killer Wireless add-on card. Not bad at all for an all in one system!

Maingear is further pushing the multimedia and home theater PC aspects of the Alpha 24. An internal DVD or Blu-ray optical drive can be added, for example. Also interesting is the inclusion of an optional CableCARD tuner that will allow the Alpha 24 to tune into encrypted cable TV stations and act as a DVR using software like Windows Media Center. Unforunately, details on the specific tuner they are offering were not given in the press release. The Alpha 24 can also act as a monitor for external video sources connected over HDMI, such as a game console or another computer.

Maingear did not skimp on the I/O either for the claimed “no compromises” Alpha 24. Internal expansion slots include two mini PCI-E and one PCI-E x16 slot (for the GPU). External connectivity options include three USB 2.0 ports, a SD card reader, mic in/audio out jacks, and space for a single slim optical disc drive along the right edge of the display. Ports along the left edge of the display include the graphics card's video outputs – 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort – two S-Video connectors, power jack, Gigabit LAN, HDMI output, two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, optical audio output, and analog audio jack. The back of the Alpha 24 hosts a VGA and HDMI input along with antenna connectors.

Also, the internals are user serviceable and things like the GPU can easily be upgraded, according to the company – allowing for future upgrading to keep the system relevant. Maingear CEO Wallace Santos stated the following in the company's press release.

“In this day and age, there shouldn’t be a reason anyone would need to compromise for an all-in-one performance PC. Other all-in-one PC solutions pale in comparison to the ALPHA 24 and can be summed up with just a few words: 1080p gaming set to Ultra, maxed anti-aliasing and tessellation.”

Currently, the Alpha 24 has an MSRP starting at $1,349 for the base model. It will ship with Windows 7 x64, however it should be available pre-loaded with Windows 8 later next month following the Windows 8 release.

All in all, the Maingear Alpha 24 looks like a decent computer for the price, though you are paying a bit of a premium for the all in one form factor versus going with a traditional desktop – and building a PC yourself by following the PC Perspective Hardware Leaderboard. So long as the reviews come back stating that build quality is good, it is definitely an interesting machine if you are limited to OEM options and don’t want a tower sitting under your desk – the CableCARD tuner option is also a nice touch.

You can find more photos of the Alpha 24 over at the Maingear website.

What do you think about this system, enough future upgrade-ability to sway you away from a traditional tower PC?

Introduction and Exterior

When we do system reviews at PC Perspective we tend to look for some specific feature, or some unique asset, that the builder has to provide value to the consumer and potential customer. I have seen systems that provided a great cost value, ones that offer an extremely quiet experience, some that are in a small form factor, etc. Our review of the MAINGEAR Shift custom machine is here due simply to an impressive collection of hardware.

While you can grab a Shift PC starting under $2000, ours isn't going to come anywhere near that. In fact, as of this writing, the configuration we are detailing would run you about $6,200. Why? Take a look at the specifications:

Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E

16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 Motherboard

3 x Radeon HD 7970 3GB Graphics Cards

2 x Corsair Force GT 120GB SSDs (RAID-0)

1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM HDD

Corsair AX1200 watt power supply

MAINGEAR Epic 180 water cooler

MAINGEAR Epic Audio system

Fancy White LEDs

So with a Sandy Bridge-E processor, 16GB of memory, three HD 7970s running in CrossFireX and Corsair SSDs running in a RAID-0 array, this is one of the fastest gaming PCs you can purchase today.

A Look at the Shift

The specifications are just part of the story though; MAINGEAR is well known for building a high quality machine with attention to detail and continues to push forward with unique ideas like a vertical system design (first system builder to introduce it), custom 180mm water coolers and even in-house thermal interfaces.

While MAINGEAR does offer systems in a variety of colors, our system uses the basic brushed black aluminum. The window on the side panel is another option that was included on our demo rig.

Just Delivered is a section of PC Perspective where we share some of the goodies that pass through our labs that may or may not see a review, but are pretty cool none the less.

While we get sent complete system builds from time to time, it's pretty rare when they actually impress me. Because we review and work with the best harware in the business on a daily basis, something unique really has to be there for us to really be wowed. Today we were playing with a custom built MAINGEAR SHIFT machine that did just that.

The SHIFT is the company's flagship product line that starts out with an $1800+ price tag, so you know you are getting top of the line components. Our test system includes a Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E processor as well as a trio of Radeon HD 7970 cards from AMD. That's right, three.

The internals are lit by a white LED and the black/red color pattern of the graphics cards is continued with the inclusion of matching Corsair DDR3 memory to the tune of 16GB and the MAINGEAR EPIC 180 self-containted water cooler.

Corsair's AX1200 watt power supply is included in the build and it is necessary! During our testing so far we found the PC could draw as much as 1050 watts from the wall while running 3DMark11.

Another exclusive feature for the MAINGEAR systems is the EPIC Audio system that adds studio quality audio headphone output and microphone input. The licensed Aphex technology is touted by the company as being really impressive and I am looking forward to giving it a try this week.

With our time with the SHIFT so far, the build quality has been impressive, the lack of crapware on the system is a welcome change and the performance is simply astounding as we expected with a SNB-E CPU and triple HD 7970s in CrossFireX.

There exists a smaller but very real segment of the market who wishes to have the power of their desktop computer in a smaller and slightly more portable package. Perhaps they desire to have the coolest single-object computing device at their LAN party? Whatever their reasons, they are served by companies like MAINGEAR who regularly provide new and better models for their choosing.

Mobile GPUs in SLi -- not common, not unheard of, but probably a good idea for 3D.

On their product page, they have yet to update the technical specifications as of this posting. The updated ones from their press release are as follows:

Kenilworth, New Jersey – March 13th, 2012 – MAINGEAR, an award-winning custom PC builder known for custom built desktops, laptops and workstations is now adding all-in-one PC solutions to their product offerings. The MAINGEAR Solo 21 All-in-one builds upon MAINGEAR’s pedigree of performance, upgradeability, no bloatware, and excellent service and support that they are known for.

With more consumers looking for a full-size desktop computer without the hassle of wires and other connections, the MAINGEAR Solo 21 All-in-One provides the freedom of space while still offering the latest technology. Following their trend of fully customizable products, the MAINGEAR Solo 21 is the first fully upgradeable all-in-one today, including the ability to upgrade the motherboard to accommodate future technology advances. This powerful all-in-one PC features an optional vibrant LED backlit 10-point touchscreen, a built in webcam, and supports a wide range of 32nm and 22nm Intel Core Processor to fit your needs and budget, and comes with a 32GB SSD caching drive for faster system response, standard.

Sleek, Elegant Design:
With clean lines and attractive silhouette, the MAINGEAR Solo 21 can fit in any room in the house. It can be on the living room wall as a media hub or use it in the kitchen for. With a VESA mount, you can hang it in your bedroom and use Windows Media Center to pull in content from your main PC or even plug in a digital cable tuner and use it as a stand-alone entertainment system.

In world of firsts, the MAINGEAR Solo 21 All-in-One will also offer a wide range of hand-painted automotive quality colors so ahead and choose your favorite color.

Advanced Technology:
Since the MAINGEAR Solo 21 is completely upgradable, it features support for a wide range of processor and also supports 22nm next generation processors. In addition, it conforms to Intel Thin Mini-ITX standards, meaning even the motherboard is upgradeable, a first in the PC industry. The MAINGEAR Solo 21 All-in-One offers up to 16GB of DDR3 memory and supports full size hard drives up to 2TB of storage and eSATA for fast external storage. The MAINGEAR Solo 21 is equipped with two USB 3.0 ports and two additional high current, fast-charging USB 2.0 ports to keep your mobile devices ready to go.

The MAINGEAR Solo 21 also features a gorgeous LED backlit 1080p screen with optional 10-point multi-touch technology, allowing for even greater interactivity with your PC.

The MAINGEAR Solo 21 is the first all-in-one to come equipped with SSD caching to accelerate the performance of your hard drive by up to 5-8X* thanks to the robust Dataplex software by NVELO and a fully upgradeable mSATA slot. This unique feature gives you the performance of an SSD, without the cost or complexity of a dual-drive configuration.

“We are happy to work with Maingear to enable this very unique All-in-One product,” said Kevin Silver, VP of Business Development for NVELO. “ They set out to deliver a flexible computing platform with reduced cost and complexity, but did not want to compromise on performance. By configuring the SOLO to include our Dataplex cache software with an mSATA cache SSD, Maingear can now offer its customers the benefit of SSD level performance, with full HDD capacity, at a minimal incremental cost.”

"The new MAINGEAR Solo 21 is the perfect PC to meet the increased market demand of having an all-in-one PC that is more versatile for business or entertainment use. MAINGEAR continues to be an innovation leader with the release of this unique all-new all-in-one, which offers premium features, stylish design and upgradability that no one else offers," said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR.

It will cost you a fair amount but MAINGEAR has assembled an awe-inspiring 17.3" laptop. Go full out and you will have Intel's fastest processor, a pair of GTX580Ms in SLI and 32GB of DDR3 in quad channel! Plus you get Jagged Alliance Back in Action and Batman Arkham City tossed in to sweeten the pot.

Kenilworth, New Jersey – February 7, 2012 - MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder offering custom desktops, notebooks, and workstations, has updated the TITAN 17 high performance desktop replacement solution with all new aesthetic features while still maintaining top of the line performance forPC gamers who want to harness desktop-like power wherever they go and creative professionals that can work on site with no loss in productivity.

The TITAN 17 features support for both the latest Intel Core i7 3930K and the Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition. With fast, intelligent multi-core technology that accelerates performance to match your workload, it delivers an incredible breakthrough in gaming performance. For both gamers and demanding users, the Titan 17 capitalizes on a dramatic leap forward in processing technology to provide all the power you need for even the most advanced games and applications.

Constantly looking to push performance boundaries, MAINGEAR’s TITAN 17 features the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M, combining the power of DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX technologies. The GTX 580M can also be configured in SLI offering up to 2x’s performance scaling on today’s hottest PC games. The TITAN lets you play games the way they’re meant to be played without having to worry if your video card is up to the task.

The updated TITAN 17 also features support for the Quadro 5010M, featuring up to 4 GB of graphics memory and 384 CUDA cores. Built on the innovative NVIDIA Fermi architecture, the latest Quadro mobile graphics offerings integrate high performance computing capabilities with advanced visualization, transforming your TITAN 17 into a mobile super computer.

Gamer and PC enthusiasts on the go will never have to compromise with the TITAN 17. This powerhouse notebook can be customized with up to 32GB of DDR3 memory with speeds up to 1866MHz, two hardwired USB 3.0 ports, up to three SSD or SATA HDD’s with hardware RAID support, and even when fully loaded; it keeps the option for an optical drive. As the power of the notebook will allow user to do more faster, the TITAN 17 also offers a full size illuminated keyboard and numeric pad.

The MAINGEAR TITAN 17 is currently available for pre-order and is offering free shipping along with the highly anticipated legendary game: Jagged Alliance: Back in Action and Batman: Arkham City PC games. For more details visit: www.maingear.com/titan17.

Technical Specification:

Video Card: up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M SLI with 2GB GDDR5 or NVIDIA Quadro 5010M with up to 4GB GDDR5 Graphics memory

“The new MAINGEAR TITAN 17 offers the best in desktop replacement versatility.” Said Wallace Santos, CEO and Co-founder of MAINGEAR Computers. “With the power of the latest Intel 2nd generation Core I7 Extreme Edition desktop processor, dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580Ms in SLI and with the option to use Quadro 510M graphics, this system caters to anyone looking for the ultimate mobile powerhouse.”